Raynham, Dighton not immune to heroin epidemic

While the high amount of heroin overdoses in Taunton has gained considerable notice this year, since a spike reported by police at the beginning of 2014, surrounding towns have also dealt with the scourge.

RAYNHAM — While the high amount of heroin overdoses in Taunton has gained considerable notice this year, since a spike reported by police at the beginning of 2014, surrounding towns have also dealt with the scourge.

Raynham police Chief James Donovan said the rate of overdoses in his town has decreased since the beginning of the year, mirroring the pattern in Taunton, but that the town saw its second fatal overdose of the year in early April. Donovan made the statement on Tuesday night during a monthly report at the Raynham Board of Selectmen meeting.

Donovan said the town’s most recent fatal heroin overdose claimed the life of a 29-year-old woman.

“The amount of overdoses has abated,” Donovan said. “But we had another fatal heroin overdose earlier this month. …She was found dead by a family member. It was someone who we responded to before for previous overdoses.”

Donovan said that in the past six months, there has been an unusually high amount of overdose calls. During his last monthly report to the selectmen, Donovan reported the town’s first fatal heroin overdose of the year, which took place on Feb. 1. But the number of reported overdoses started to decline in the last month, he said.

“On an optimistic side, in the last three or four weeks the number of calls seems to have lessened,” Donovan said. “It definitely has gone down.”

Donovan said he believes the high number of overdoses in the Raynham and Taunton areas was caused by heroin tainted with the powerful narcotic Fentanyl, which he said is now being found in heroin in Boston.

“It seems to kind of move around,” said Donovan, adding that the police will be on the lookout for the Fentanyl-laced strain of heroin returning to the area. “If you follow the region, this really started around here, but prior to that it was in western Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and then seemed to move through our area, then into south Vermont and New Hampshire. It seems to move around.”

Since the beginning of the year, heroin overdoses in Taunton spiked, according to police. During the first 83 days of the year, there were 132 total overdoses. Now, as of the beginning of May, there have been 140 total overdoses, including 10 fatal heroin overdoses, according to Taunton police.

But Taunton is not alone. Surrounding communities like Raynham and Dighton have also had heroin-related deaths this year.

A man in Dighton died after a heroin overdose in January, said Dighton police Sgt. Ed Dutra.

“He was about 36 or 37 years old,” Dutra said. “But he had a history.”

Overall, Dutra said Dighton has been relatively calm in terms of heroin overdoses in recent weeks. The only other heroin overdose he knows about took place a month and a half ago, and the user, who survived, was originally from Taunton.

Page 2 of 2 - One time, Dighton police had to help with an overdose call in Taunton, and one of Dutra’s fellow officers stopped to do CPR on a person on the Taunton line.

“We’ve been lucky,” Dutra said. “Hopefully we’ll be prepared if it does happen more.”

In Raynham, there have been about 15 calls for medical response for overdoses since the beginning of the year, according to Raynham Fire Chief James Januse.

Berkley police Chief Scott Labonte said there have been no fatal overdoses in his town this year, but he said there have been six nonfatal overdoses in Berkley in 2014.

Two of those nonfatal Berkley overdoses involved users who administered their own Naloxone, a drug used to reverse the effects of overdose, before the police and fire departments arrived.

“It’s a higher number than years past, so certainly it’s an increase,” Labonte said. “Obviously, heroin is in the area and it’s widespread.”

Attempts to reach Rehoboth police to obtain figures for recent overdoses on Wednesday were unsuccessful.